Live 9 New browser: it's way or the highway

[login]

In order to get then ew Live 9 browser working properly and showing your own content under any category you want now you have to comply with the browser folder structure (and take care to create new folders inside the "presets" folder for bass, pad, lead, etc for each instruments).

Once you do it it's way it shows stuff in "sounds", in any Live instrument folder or instruments racks folder in the "instruments" category, audio fx or midi fx folder, etc.

So how do you find the new system?


I just think it's kind of rigid and well it forces you to use live folder structure for presets. The other side is that it helps you to keep everything organized.

I also found the manual is not very good in explaning this at all.

[kevwestbeats]

I hate the new browser

[infernal.machine]

At the start of the beta I hated it with a fiery passion. Now that I have it set up I really don't care at all.

[pepezabala]

I keep on using finder for finding my own stuff and live's browser for browsing factory content/packs, and for saving stuff from livesets (clips, presets, clipclusters etc.).

I kind of hate the fact that they took away the bookmarks which I used a lot. Places doesn't fully replace this, as you can't specify a place siting within a place, e.g. a folder within your live8library.

[Ryder17]

I didn't like the look of it at first but come on, it's dope!!

[sowhoso]

i much prefer the browser in 9

PLACES is way cool...add you own folders and drag/drop whatever you need into them, all without leaving the browser

i made the most i could of the browser in 8 and previous, but i didn't like it at all. i would call the old one totalitarian BS

[spacecat]

Preferences -> File/Folder -> Browser Behaviour -> Legacy mode.

[chapelier fou]

i personally totally don't care about the browser.

[robouser]

What happened to being able to open MIDI files in the browser like a folder, and import selected tracks?

From: https://www.ableton.com/en/articles/midi-file-format/

"Additionally, SMF1 formatted files appear as a folder in Live's browser, which can be opened to import only some of its tracks if necessary."

Was this feature actually removed??

[puzzlefactory]

I don't mind the new browser, but at the same time i didn't mind the old one either. I do like being able to customize which folders appear in places.

[snakedogman]

I like it, but there seem to be some issues with it. For instance, samples from user folders added to "places" do not show up under the "Samples" category (even though the manual states that they should).
And if you do a search in one of the "places" the result only shows the top most folder of the (sub)folder structure containing the actual result so you have to click through all the subfolders manually to get to where you want, which IMO completely defeats the use of have a search function in the first place.

[Tarekith]

I still haven't found a DAW that made it easier to find your files versus just using Finder, so I still revert to that for everything except Live's plug ins.

[puzzlefactory]

I don't think there's much point in creating subfolders for user racks.

Why not? Pretty much all patch libraries are subdivided into subfolders including the Ableton core library. Why shouldn't the user library be the same?

[Angstrom]

As far as the categorisation system goes, the failure can be seen by looking at Sounds/Ambient & Evolving/ and see the first item "All Alone Pad". Now take a look in pads, it's not there.

Here we see a sound there which has the attributes of being both Atmospheric AND a Pad. That a sounds has multiple attributes shouldn't surprise anybody, because most sounds are best described by using a combination of attributes. I'd be surprised if anyone could successfully describe a sound with just one attribute.

So, for example: a Moog bass sound could be described by the (Ableton) attributes of [Bass,Synthetic], while an Upright bass could be described by the attributes [Bass, Guitar/plucked, Strings] , meanwhile a bowed upright bass is [Bass, Strings, pad] .

The benefit of allowing multiple attributes is so each user can discover sounds relevant to their requirement. This means that if I need a [Bass] I can discover both the Moog Bass and the Upright Bass, but alternatively if I am doing something orchestral and go looking for [Strings, Bass] I would again see the Upright Bass, but not the synthy moog.

Different creative requirements provoke different browsing starting points in the user, by providing non-exclusive classification a browser system is able to deliver contextually useful results appropriate to each user's thought process and starting point, and provide related recommendations related to their request.

Ableton didn't do this. they went for an artificial arbitrary hierarchy, where each sound has one attribute and cannot be discovered laterally.

[login]

In order to get then ew Live 9 browser working properly and showing your own content under any category you want now you have to comply with the browser folder structure (and take care to create new folders inside the "presets" folder for bass, pad, lead, etc for each instruments).

Once you do it it's way it shows stuff in "sounds", in any Live instrument folder or instruments racks folder in the "instruments" category, audio fx or midi fx folder, etc.

So how do you find the new system?


I just think it's kind of rigid and well it forces you to use live folder structure for presets. The other side is that it helps you to keep everything organized.

I also found the manual is not very good in explaning this at all.

I don't think there's much point in creating subfolders for user racks, as far as Categories is concerned, they don't show up in Categories if you do that as far as I know.

yes they do, in sounds and in instruments. This way you can add VST's prestes to the Categories browser.